Let's Go Voltron Force
by CrimsonTheKing
Summary: This is a continuation of where Voltron Force left off with use of OCs. First time writing a fic so please forgive me if it sucks. Claire Rose and Mark Hall are the two newest cadets picked from the Garrison to help the Voltron Force, what they don't know, is that one of them isn't what she says she is. A firey redhead and mellow sandy blonde make quiet the addition to the team.
1. Chapter 1 New Cadets

**Notice: I do not own Voltron Force or any of the associated characters. I have written this story purely for my own love of the show. This takes place at the end of the show with Daniel turning on the force. I am using two OCs for this story, their names are Claire Rose and Mark Hall. Claire is a descendant of a race of shapeshifters from the planet of Helilion. Members of her race contain certain characteristics of animals, hers is ears. The closest animal on earth she shares characteristics with is a lynx, she wears a beanie to hide the ears. (Just my excuse to put a cat-girl in this story. Lol), She is 18. Mark is just a normal human who grew up with Claire and is a great pilot. Hope you enjoy my story.**

"Looks like Daniel is coming back to join the pride." Lance said with a smile. But Vince knew better through their telepathic link. "That's not Daniel" he said as the Black Lion jumped at them, aiming for Green. "Vince!" Lance said moving Red in front of Vince and Green, taking the hit and going flying. Shortly afterwards Black ran out of energy and collapsed. The team then went and checked on Lance and Daniel, sending them both to the medical ward. "Well, Lance's arm is broken again and Daniel is out cold." Allura said as she walked into the control room were the rest of the force was waiting to hear from her. "Any good news to share with us Pidge?" She asked the former Green Lion pilot. "Well", he said pushing up his glasses, "I believe I have found us two more cadets."

Claire sat in her classroom at the Garrison, bored out of her mind. Luckily the new head of the academy had let her keep her beanie on, she had claimed it was some hair loss disease or something like that. No one except her parents and her best friend knew about her "condition". These weird ears just appeared out of nowhere one day when she woke up. She had dreamed of seeing the stars when she joined the Garrison, but instead she sat in some stupid classroom learning about the history of the Alliance. She didn't care about any of that, she just wanted to fly a spaceship and shoot some evil aliens. Luckily it wasn't too bad, Mark was beside her and that made things better. Almost all of their classes were together and he was her best friend and one hell of a pilot, or at least in the simulator he was. Eventually the bell rang and classes were over for the day. She then rushed back to her dorm and laid down on her bed. She then looked at the screen in her room and it had a text telling her and Mark to go to the Sky Marshals office. She sighed, what had they down this time. She got up and made sure her beanie was on well enough to hid her extra set of ears on her head. She then went and walked to the Sky Marshals office and waited for Mark to get there. Luckily her ears did come with a benefit, she could hear even the faintest sounds if she tried hard enough. She then listened to what was going on in the office. She could hear two men and one woman arguing, she knew one was the Sky Marshal, but the other she wasn't sure of. She was so intent on listening she didn't notice Mark walking up to her "What are you doing?" he asked her and she jumped and made an almost mouse like squeak and the arguing stopped. "Come in you two" the Sky Marshal said and they walked in, Claire elbowing Mark in the side for scaring her. In front of the two was the Sky Marshal and some man in a black outfit and some device on his arm, beside him was a woman in a blue and white dress with a crown on her head. She immediately recognized them as Keith and Allura of the Voltron Force. She couldn't believe she hadn't recognized their voices through the door. She quickly bowed her head and Mark just stood there dumbfounded, Claire then reached up and forced his head into a bow. "Welcome you two" Allura said "We have a lot to talk about."


	2. Chapter 2 New Home

**Notice: I do not own Voltron Force or any of the associated characters. Also, sorry for the super short first chapter, I'll try and make them longer.**

Mark and Claire stood with their heads bowed to the queen of Arus and the Commander of the Voltron Force standing beside her. "Are we in trouble?" Mark asked, followed by a nudge by Claire who had remained silent. Keith and Allura looked at each and other and laughed and then Keith spoke "No, you aren't in trouble. In fact, it's the opposite." The two teens looked at each other confused and then back to Keith who smiled at them. "So, what do you two think about being our newest cadets for the Voltron Force?" the two of them looked at each other and then smiled at Keith and Allura and nodded. "Go pack you bags cadets and meet up in the hangar in 15" the two ran out of the Sky Marshals office and Keith turned back to him "And you said they wouldn't want to go." The Sky Marshal just shrugged "They're two of our best students, I can see why you picked them". Claire had packed up what few items and clothing she had, along with some of her other beanies and went to the hangar, Mark packed his things in a small duffle bag and ran to the hangar barely containing his excitement. The two of them waited outside the hangar for Keith and Allura to get there, Claire seemed a little nervous and Mark put a hand on her shoulder and squeezed lightly "Don't worry so much Claire, everything will be okay." He smiled at her and she smiled back. Soon enough Keith and Allura came to the hangar and they got on the transport ship to go to Arus. During the flight, the cadets discussed what it would be like on Arus with the Force. "I can't wait to see the Lions up close." Mark said with a silly grin, "I bet they are so much bigger than they look on the news". Claire just smiled and rolled her eyes, "Wonder how much firepower they are packing." She said with a curious smile. "You will find out soon enough cadets" Keith said as they neared the atmosphere of Arus.

When they landed at the castle they were greeted by most of the Force. Lance was in a cast and Daniel had a wrapping on his head and Hunk was standing with Pidge, a smile on his face, while Larmina and Vince where nowhere to be seen. "Welcome cadets" Pidge said and motioning them inside. Inside the castle the new cadets took a tour of the castle, finishing in the control room Pidge turned around and motioned towards a door that opened "Now, we will begin your classes immediately, please go into the classroom and meet your instructor." With that the two of them walked into the classroom and there stood Larmina who welcomed the cadets and had them take a seat. "We will begin with giving you new cadets your Voltcoms" a panel opened and she handed the two of them their Voltcoms. "Now, time to begin your first class, hand-to-hand combat." She motioned them to stand as the classroom faded and they stood in the sim room. "Now cadets, in order to determine what weapon your Voltcom chooses for you, you need to briefly spar." Claire and Mark looked at each other and nodded and then took a few steps between them. Now, unlike Mark, Claire had plenty of experience in hand-to-hand combat from getting in so many fights before she joined the Garrison and had continue to train herself in multiple types of martial arts. They each took a fighting stance and Mark rushed at her and Claire did a low sweeping kick that Mark jumped over and went for a right hook when he landed. Claire blocked his hit with her left arm and forcefully hit him in the chest dead center with her right palm, knocking him away and on his back. As he went to get back up she ran and jumped at him, hitting him with an axe kick in on his head. Claire then stood up and smiled as Mark sat up and rubbed his head, "I had forgotten you knew martial arts Claire" he chuckled. She then let him stand up and Larmina clapped her hands once "Alright, that's enough. Let's see what your Voltcoms decided for you two. Press this button Mark" she motioned towards a button on her own Voltcom. Mark pushed it and two one-handed battle axes appeared. "Whoa" he said checking out his new weapons with a goofy grin. Larmina then looked at Claire "Well, don't be shy let's see your weapon". Claire then presses the button on her own Voltcom and gun and a knife materialized in her hands, she then inspected them both and smiled, "Oh yeah".

After the class the two made their way back to the control room and Allura motioned them over. "Now, I assume you two are tired so let me escort you to your new rooms here in the castle." And with that, Allura began walking followed by the two cadets. Soon, they got where the cadets stayed, "Mark, you will be sharing a room with Daniel since Vince has moved out, and Claire you will be staying in a room by yourself." Claire silently sighed in relief, being alone meant she could take off her beanie and not worry about anyone seeing her other ears. "Well, I'm going to let you two get to unpacked, see you at dinner." As Allura took her leave of the two they smiled at each other and went into their new rooms and quickly unpacked, Claire taking this opportunity to take her beanie off and let her dark red hair down and her extra set of ears perked up. She then flipped her hair and sighed in relief "That's so much better." She then brushed her hair and put on a different beanie and looked at her Voltcom and smiled, she could not believe she was lucky enough to be chosen for this.

 **What do you guys think? Leave a review and let me know if something doesn't make sense. And as always, hope you enjoyed.**


	3. Chapter 3 New Foes

**Notice: I do not own Voltron Force or any of its associated characters. Please leave a review and a if you enjoy please favorite.**

After getting everything unpacked and situated Mark sat down on his bed in his and Daniels room, he had gotten the top bunk that Vince had before moving to a new room. He inspected his Voltcom and grinned as Daniel walked in "Pretty cool right?" He said with a grin and Mark nodded in agreement. Daniel then went and leaned against the wall, "So, you and Claire, anything interesting there?" he asked. "If you are trying to refer to me and Claire as a couple, you would be totally wrong. She would never get with a guy like me." Daniel raised an eyebrow and shook his head. "It's true" Mark said, "I don't think she has ever had those kind of feelings for anyone." Daniel sighed, "If you say so Mark" he then sat down. Mark then raised an eyebrow, "What happened to your head by the way, if you don't mind me asking." Daniel then moved to be able to look up at Mark, "It's uh…. Kind of a haggarrium infection. I thought that after we beat Lotor, it would just go away. But it didn't" he sighed. "That's crazy man." Mark said with a slight whistle, "What time is lunch by the way?" he said with a smile and rubbing the back of his head. Daniel looked at the clock on the Voltcom "In a few minutes, so we should get going." The boys got up and started walking towards the dining room when they passed Claire's room. "Go on ahead Daniel, I'm going to get Claire." Daniel just gave him a smug look and smiled then kept walking. Mark then knocked on her door "Hey Claire, dinner time." The door then opened and Claire walked out, a red beanie on, "Let's go then, don't want to be late for our first official Voltron Force cadet dinner, do we?" Mark just laughed and walked after her. Eventually they caught up to Daniel, who was waiting for them at the door, and the three cadets entered the dining room where they were greeted with smiling faces.

Across the galaxy as the Voltron Force and cadets were eating their dinner a dark presence grew over planet Drule once again. In Maahox's lab, two pods opened with a hiss. Walking out of one pod was Maahox himself and in the other was a confused Lotor. "Welcome back once again, My Lord." Maahox said with a sinister grin. "Mahoox? But how, I thought I was vanquished once again by Voltron" he then glared at Maahox, "And betrayed by you." Maahox held up his hands in defense "It wasn't betrayal My Lord, it was strategy." He walked over to his workbench, "To make them think they had gotten rid of us once and for all." He motioned his hand towards the screen on his workbench that showed the Force celebrating the fall of the Drule empire. "I had those two pods ready just in case we were to both fail at destroying the Voltron Force, they would take samples of our DNA and regrow us, so to speak, with the power of haggarium." Lotor clenched and unclenched his fists. "So, what do we do now that the Voltron Force believes us to be dead." Maahox chuckled at this. "Well My Lord, I believe that through your mind connection with the cadet named Daniel will help us spy on them, meanwhile I have called in a favor from a very good friend of mine who has helped me gather specimen for my haggarium experiments." Lotor looked at Maahox "And who would this 'friend' be Maahox." He in turn, then pointed at another monitor that showed what looked to be a large cargo ship with a fleet surrounding it. "He goes by one name, "The Collector' and he is very picky about what or whom he collects." Lotor grinned "And what is his price?" Maahox then smiled "He would like to be able to keep the heads of the Voltron Lions to add to his collection." Lotor laughed, "Is that all?" Maahox nodded. "Then tell him by all means, as long I get to keep the joy of crushing the life out of every member of Voltron." Maahox nodded and sent the go ahead to The Collector and the many sleeper agents they had planted across the galaxy.

Back at the Castle of Lions as the team was finishing dinner several alarms went off and they all rushed to the command center. Pidge then opened a hollow-screen and looked at the feed that the alert system was sending them. "We got multiple reports of Drule sleeper agents attacking a major city on Earth along with an army of Drule robotic soldiers." Everyone looked at Keith who looked at the feed, "Okay, since they don't have a robeast, three lions should be able to handle this." He looked at Larmina and Vince, "Lance since you're still hurt you will have to stay here, don't want you injuring your arm anymore. Hunk, make sure he listens. Come on you two!" Keith, Vince, and Larmina then went to their ziplines that led to the lions. Lance just sighed and sat down in a holo-chair. Hunk pat him on the back "Don't worry Lance, you'll be better in no time." With all the commotion, the three cadets had sneaked out "Vince left some of his old monitoring stuff down in The Lair, we can spy on the feed live and get notified if anything happens if you two want to." Claire and Mark looked at each other and nodded to Daniel, "Follow me" He said as he leads them to the Lair through the catacombs. When they arrived, Daniel powered on one of the monitors and they saw what was happening down on Earth. A base that the Alliance had in the city of Washington D.C. was under siege by an army of Drule robots with several Drule citizens leading them from a command ship in the sky. The Garrison would have already sent ships to take care of it, if it wasn't for the threat of the experimental reactor core that the ship held. The cadets watched in horror as the army continued to advance on the city. Daniel then shut the feed off, "That was a bit much, considering you guys just left. Sorry for dragging you down here to watch this." After he said that a notification popped up on the screen, "Huh, looks like one Vince's long range space scanner things has picked up something nearing Arus without proper authentications." He pulled up an image of the spacecraft and it looked to be a small command ship. "That isn't like any of the Drule ships I have ever seen." Daniel remarked as it flew into the Arusian atmostphere, "and it isn't triggering any of the other alarms, so that means there is a blindspot in our sensors." He looked at Claire, "Think you can handle the heat Red's packing?", Claire smiled "I think the question is, can you get the key so we can find out?" Daniel laughed "I like how you think." With that Daniel activated his Voltcom and took off, a few seconds later he returned with the Red key. "Luckily for us, Red is in the hangar so let's go." The three cadets took off towards the hangar and got into the Red Lion. Little did the cadets know that the remaining of the Voltron Force was watching them. "So, how long do you think they won't notice that Red Lion is gone?" Lance asked and Pidge replied "Probably about an hour if Daniel uses his speed boost on Red." The others sat and watched the feed of the Red Lion flying over the Arusian surface. The Red Lion within a few minutes had reached close to where the small command ship, it was in a forest area, and the cadets climbed out. "Well, shall we try and find this strange ship?" Asked Claire, already activating her Voltcom and her weapons materializing. The two boys nodded and together they all began walking through the forest like terrain searching for the ship. After about thirty minutes they found it near a large grove of trees. Around it stood about thirty of what looked to be sentinels, purely robotic. The three cadets looked at each other and moved back a bit to think of a plan of action. "I could just use my speed and take them all out" Daniel said. "Or, we could all attack from various positions so some of us can actually get some experience with our weapons." Mark said. "Good point." Daniel replied. The three of them split up and got on different sides of the sentinels, the other two cadets activated their weapons and they all charged. Daniel making quick work of his with speed and claws, Mark was cutting his opponents to shreds with his twin battle-axes, and Claire was shooting with pinpoint accuracy and cutting down any that came towards her. After the fight was over the three cadets smiled at each other and looked at the ship, "Well, let's check this thing out." Claire said as they walked over to it. As they went into the ship and got to the bridge the main monitor on it turned on and a masked figure was on the screen and spoke with a strange voice "Welcome Voltron Cadets, I see you defeated my group of sentinel guards, congratulations. But, I don't think all of you will be able to leave here without injury." The pointed and a screen on a side console popped up with a countdown. "There are charges somewhere on this ship set to explode in roughly fifteen seconds starting….. Now." The man laughed and the screen turned off and the three cadets took off bolting down the way they came in. The counter continuing to count down, nearing zero as the cadets got out of the ship and kept running. When it had been fifteen seconds and the ship didn't explode Claire stopped and turned around, Mark and Daniel stopping a few steps ahead of her, "Come on Claire, we need to leave before that thing blows." Mark said. "I think if it was going to explode it would have Mark, been longer than fifteen seconds." Claire said, "But let's go back to the lion anyway." The others agreed and started to run towards the Red Lion, Claire going a bit slower than them thinking that that man had seemed familiar somehow, she just couldn't place it. Being lost in thought she didn't notice that there was a tree branch in front of her and ran right into it, falling on her butt. She then stood up and brushed herself off, her extra set of ears hearing a strange ringing sound and she turned and looked back towards where the ship was, she then took off running almost instinctively before an explosion blew up the ship and a portion of the area around it. The resulting shockwave sent that debris out quite some ways, a few pieces of the debris had hit Claire in her shoulder and nicked the side of her head, while the shockwave had cause her to stutter-step and hit her head on another tree branch, this one she hit with a bit more force so it caused her beanie to shift a bit. After that she kept running till she caught up to Daniel and Mark and they got in Red and Daniel used his speed boost to get out of there and back to the castle. When they returned Hunk and Lance were standing in the hanger waiting for them, Lance holding a stopwatch in his hand. When Red powered down and Mark and Daniel got out of the lion Lance spoke. "Forty-five minutes Danny-boy. You aren't getting faster are you?" Daniel laughed and Claire walked out of Red and Hunk spoke up. "Did something happen Claire?" who then looked over at them, a few strands of her red hair had fallen out of her beanie and it looked like she had dried lines of blood on the side of her face. "Huh, no why?" she said and Hunk pointed at the hair she then moved her hand to where Hunk was looking and moving the strands of hair in the progress. "Aren't you supposed to have some kind of disease that you don't have hair?" Lance said and then immediately got nudged by Hunk. "What? I was just asking." Lance grumbled. Claire then looked at Mark and nodded to each other. "That was kind of a lie I told the Sky Marshal so I could wear beanies in class." Claire then moved the beanie to where it would let her hair fall down, but not too much to show her lynx ears. The dark red hair then fell out, it was a little past her shoulders in the back and she had her bangs moved behind her ears. "Ta-dah" she said nervously. Lance just smiled "I, for one, am totally surprised. What about you Hunk?" the red pilot looked at Hunk who just smiled "I'm with you their Lance." The man then walked over and put a hand on her shoulder, the one with the debris in it that she had yet to feel the pain of because of the adrenaline, and gave her a thumbs up. It was at this time that the adrenaline decided to wear off and she tried to call out in pain, but she just couldn't make any noise as she grasped at the shoulder and her knees buckled. Hunk quickly caught her and looked at his hand that had been on her shoulder, there was blood. He then got on his Voltcom and told Pidge to get some medical equipment down to the hanger immediately along with Allura. Hunk didn't know what had happened to the cadet, but moving her to much could cause whatever was in her shoulder to tear muscles and blood vessels. The group was near a table that was large enough to be used as a temporary bed, Hunk then laid Claire down on her stomach trying not to move her too much. Within a few minutes Allura rushed in along with a female nurse with medical supplies. Hunk and Lance then moved themselves and the two cadets out of the room. Allura noticed the hair on the cadet but paid it no mind as she moved it out of the wounded area, she grimaced. There were multiple pieces of wood and metal, small as they may be, embedded in her shoulder, how the girl managed to move her arm the Queen didn't know. Allura then cut the surrounding material around the wounds, Claire hadn't lost that much blood luckily, but if they didn't get that debris out of her shoulder she would be in a lot of pain. Allura and the nurse begin to work on the cadet, outside Lance and Hunk were talking to the cadets about what happened. As Daniel and Mark told the story Lance and Hunk grew worried, a ship that passed through their sensors without them going off and then exploding on the planet and they still didn't know. After what felt like hours the nurse and Allura walked out with a faintly conscious Claire, in the nurse's hands was a tray with the debris that was in Claire's shoulder. The nurse handed it to Hunk who then went towards the control room where Pidge was, to get the type of metal examined to see if it had any unique properties. "Mark, Daniel, please escort Claire back to her room and then come to the control room. I want to know everything that happened." Allura then walked off with the nurse while Mark bent down and bit and had Claire climb on his back, and then off they went to Claire's room. "So, she does have hair." Daniel said, still confused slightly in a very Daniel way. "Yes" Mark replied to him as they kept walking. "Does she ever take the beanie all the way off?" He asked. Mark sighed and responded "Sometimes. It's usually when she is alone with no one to bother her." After many questions, they eventually make it to Claire's room and Mark gently lays her down on the bed as to not disturb her wound. They made sure Claire was asleep before they quietly left her room and went back towards the control room. "So, is there anything under the beanie she doesn't want anyone to see?" Daniel asked, still pestering Mark. "Yes" he said and then realized he shouldn't have. "what it is?" Daniel asked, he seemed interested now. "Is it an actual bald spot? Or is some weird sort of discoloration of her hair? Come on Mark tell me. I showed you guys The Lair, least you can do is tell me what is under her beanie." Mark sighed and silently apologized to Claire. "She's got like these uh…." He didn't know how to actually describe them, oh well, "Do you know what a lynx looks like Daniel?" which he nodded, it was in the text books back at the Garrison, "okay, so take the ears of a lynx, and put them on top of her head with her hair color." Mark hated himself for sharing her secret. Daniel had his mouth open in awe "That's so cool! It's almost like she was meant to be on the Force." After a further conversation, they then arrived back at the control room with an angry Allura and three disapproving older Voltron Force members, Pidge was currently looking at them through a holo-screen studying the metal that the ship debris was made out of. "So, spill the beans cadets." Lance said, and with that, they sat down and told them everything. From how they had went to The Lair and noticed the ship on one of Vince's scanners, how Daniel had swiped Red's key, how they found the ship, all the way up to when they got back. "And that's everything" Daniel said. Allura, Lance, and Hunk all looked at each other and sighed. "We applaud you for your efforts cadets, but Claire could have been hurt worse then what she was, plus you took the Red Lion without permission." Allura said, Daniel opened his mouth to reply but Pidge spoke first "This can't be right" Everyone looked at him, "The metal is made up out of multiple different types of metals so it's kind of hard to identify each and bit, but it was strengthened by melted Coreite." He said, fixing his glasses. "The ore from Ariel?" Hunk asked and Pidge nodded. "But how? I thought that stuff wasn't mineable." Lance said, "It is, if you have something tipped with haggarium." Everyone stood quiet for a minute processing this until a loud scream was heard in the castle.

 **Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter. If you did please be sure to leave a review, it lets me know if I'm doing a good job or if I need to do better. I'm going to try and keep making chapters about this long or longer from here on.**


	4. Chapter 4 Cats out of the bag

**Notice: I do not own Voltron or any of its associated characters. Leave a review to let me know you guys are enjoying this series so far. I also decided to upload two chapters together instead of separate because I just couldn't stop typing lol. Hope you enjoy!**

  
Meanwhile, while the others were in the control room, Claire was laying in her bed with a major headache. She sat up very slowly and put a hand to her head, the room was spinning a bit. She made her way slowly towards the small mirror she had in her room. She got to the mirror and propped herself up with one hand on the wall and looked at her reflection, she didn't look so good, her skin was pale and her eyes were slightly bloodshot. Claire groaned and put a hand to her head again and then wobbled back to her bed, sitting down. She then felt a painful throbbing in her right shoulder and she groaned, first day on the Force and she'd already gotten injured. She then decided to lay down on her side, hopefully a nap will make her feel at least a little better. She then closed her eyes and drifted to sleep, but what awaited her in her dreams, was less pleasant then the real world.

In her dream, Claire was drifting through a large and empty void. She was looking around for any signs of light. Then suddenly, out of nowhere, a bright flash happened and she shielded her eyes. When she opened them back, she was in a jungle of some sort and she wasn't on Earth, she knew this because the sky was a pinkish color and the clouds were blue. She looked down and saw that she was in a black t-shirt and a bright red skirt that went past her knees. Claire was very puzzled and heard something that sounded like music and she started walking that way. This music seemed so familiar and warming, so she maneuvered through the jungle till she saw what looked to be a village in the distance. She quickened her pace and made it to the village, she was surprised to find it empty for the for the most part, the only other she could see was a young woman sitting on a running fountain next to what looked like a record player. That's where the music was coming from, and in the woman's arms appeared to be an infant whom she was rocking softly to the music. Claire smiled at this, but turned around as she heard some branches brake. Something large and canine came running through the forest towards the woman, teeth bared. Claire then ran and stood in front of the woman and held her arms out as the beast jumped, she looked away, awaiting the feeling of its claws and jaw, but they never came. Instead when she opened her eyes all she saw was fire engulfing the village and the woman was standing in front of Claire, a sword in one arm and her child in the other. To the woman's left was the canine from earlier, upon closer inspection Claire could see that it was completely robotic. Claire then heard a scream and she whipped back to see the woman with a spray of blood coming out of her chest as her sword went flying through the air. The woman then fell to her knees, her child still in her other arm as her life blood poured out of the wound on her chest, the infant crying out, in front of the woman stood a man with a sword in one hand and in the other an amulet of some sort. The man then pocketed the amulet, sheathed his blade, and bent down and spoke something to woman and she took her final breath, her eyes wide open. He then took the child whose cries had become louder. The man then looked up, almost as if he could see Claire and turned around and started to walk off. Claire, who had been seemingly frozen in place, tried to run after the man but she couldn't move. Then behind her there was a loud explosion and everything went back to black.

Claire awoke with a start and a scream, but she was then quickly silenced by the need to breath. As she took a few breaths she noticed that her head was in Mark's lap. She then looked around a bit and saw the rest of the Force who was currently at the castle. Shen then sat up slowly and looked at everyone, confused.

"Uum….. Is everything alright?" Claire asked and was met with a reply from Allura.

"You were screaming in your sleep Claire, something about a fire. Was it a nightmare?" Allura said and Claire put a hand to her head and nodded.

Mark got off of her bed and Allura sat down beside Claire and gave her a soft hug. After that almost everyone started to leave her room except for Pidge, Mark, and Daniel.

"If you don't mind Claire, I'd like to take some blood samples to make sure that you aren't getting a reaction of some sort to one of the metals from the ship's hull that Allura got out of your shoulder." Pidge asked with some basic medical equipment with him and Claire nodded.

Pidge then sat beside her and did the procedure. It was much less painful than what they did on Earth, and it was over quickly. Pidge then handed her some medicine he said would help with the pain in her shoulder. She quickly downed one of the capsules as Pidge left, then it was just her, Mark, and Daniel in the room. They all looked at each and it was Daniel who ended the awkward silence.

"So, you've got cat ears? That's pretty cool." He said and Mark quickly punched him in the shoulder, "Dude, way to be subtly!" Mark said.

Claire sighed and looked at Mark who just sighed and shrugged at her. Claire then sighed and started to remove her beanie.

"You were going to find out soon enough." She said, taking off her beanie and Daniel just stood there shocked.

"I thought he was joking" Daniel said as he reached out to touch the lynx ears on the top of her head and his hand was then swatted away, which he replied with a subtly "Ow"

"No one, touches the ears" She said very seriously with a very angry face. Daniel held up his hands in defense and Mark just laughed.

Later in the day the rest of the Force who went to Earth came back and Keith was informed by Allura what happened while they were gone. Keith was worried that something had been able to past through their orbital detection system. Pidge then mentioned that Claire had gotten hit by the ship that exploded, he told him that she was okay but there was something that he should look at. Pidge and Keith then walked over to a less occupied part of the control room and began to pull up the blood sample that he had taken from Claire and pulled up the DNA part.

"I was checking to make sure she wasn't having a negative reaction to any of the metals from the ship and I noticed something weird with her DNA." A second set of DNA was pulled up for a comparison.  
"Do you see anything different between these two sets of DNA?" Pidge asked Keith. Keith in return shrugged.

"Not much, why?" He replied to Pidge. To him, it just looked like different strands of DNA.

"Well, then look at this." He began doing his techy thing and the DNA zoomed in on the first set of DNA. "This set of DNAs has two distinct distinct types of DNA in it. One is human-like, and the other, is animalistic." Pidge said as he separated the holo-display of the DNA to give Keith a better view.

Keith put a hand on his chin and sighed. "What does that mean Pidge? That she isn't originally from Earth? Cause we checked all of her records." This time Pidge shrugged.

"I don't know what to tell you Keith, maybe Mark or Claire can shed more information as to why this is." Pidge said deactivating the holo-screen.

The two of them, along with Allura, went to find Mark whom they found sitting outside of Claire's room in case she had another nightmare. Mark immediately stood up when he saw them and gave a slight wave.

"How's she doing?" Allura asked slightly worried.  
"She's doing better, no more nightmares." He replied.

"Good" Keith said. "Now Mark, we would like to talk to you two if that would be alright. Think she's up for it?" He asked and Mark nodded slowly and then knocked on Claire's door.

"Hey Claire, you up?" A soft groan could be heard from inside the room. "Yeah, she's up."

The door then opened and stood a sleepy Claire with her beanie barely on and in a cadet outfit. She then yawned and motioned for everyone to come in. After everyone came Keith instructed them to take a seat on her bed.

"We aren't getting scolded again for taking Red out without permission, are we?" Mark asked and was met with a head shake from the three adults.

"We found something interesting when I was checking your blood for a possible infection." Pidge pulled up what he had found on the holo-screen in her room and the two cadets paled as it showed the two different types of DNA in her blood.

"Think you can explain this, cadets?" Keith asked them both with a somewhat cold stare that he was known for. Mark and Claire looked at each other and then nodded.

"They were going to find out eventually anyway" Claire said with a sigh to Mark. She then looked at the three adults. "Yeah, I can explain it."

She started moving her hands up to her beanie and Mark gently put a hand on her shoulder. "You sure about this?" He asked her and she nodded. He then took his hand off her shoulder and she slowly took her beanie off, causing the three Voltron Force members to softly gasp at what they saw. Claire nervously smiled slightly, and moved her lynx ears a bit to prove that they were real. Pidge then moved closer and looked at the ears.

"Have they always been there?" He asked and Claire shook her head and responded with, "They just appeared one night when I was about ten after having this weird dream."

"Was it like the nightmare you had earlier?" Allura asked, Claire shook her head.

"It was a pleasant dream. I dreamed I was on this strange planet with a pink sky and blue clouds…" She slowed that last part of her sentence down as she realized something and then softly facepalmed. "It was the same planet as from my nightmare, that can't be a coincidence, can it?"

The three adults shook their heads and Claire sighed. Mark then put a hand on her back to comfort her. Keith then put a hand on her shoulder as Claire looked at him.

"This doesn't take me off the team, does it?" She asked with a bit of fear in her voice and Keith shook his head.

"Of course not, why would having animal ears on top of your head make you any less capable of being a member of this team? You think we kicked Daniel off of it when we found out he had Haggarium poisoning? No, we didn't. So why should we kick you off of it?" With that, Keith and Pidge left the room while Allura stayed behind.

"Mark, you might want to go to room and get some rest, it's almost night and I think both of you could use rest. Especially you Claire after the day you've had." With that, Allura left the room and went to catch up to Keith and Pidge who went to the control room. Mark then said goodnight to Claire and went to his shared room with Daniel and went straight to sleep. Claire laid down, thinking about showing the rest of the team what the others knew. After that, she tried to get some sleep but it escaped her. After about she sighed, got up and put on a robe and went to explore the castle while everyone slept.

Back in the control, Keith, Allura, And Pidge were trying to find a planet that matched Claire's dreams. Searching through all currently known planets on their records.

"I'm just not finding anything in the database about a planet like that. Could be just a figment of her imagination." Pidge said scrolling through planets on a holo-screen.

"What about the Baltan or Earth planetary databases?" Keith said. "I know Arus' has a lot, but they might have something we don't." Pidge nodded and then expanded his search into the Baltan and Earth planetary databases. Keith and Allura then sat down in some holo-chairs and began discussing how to do the simulator tomorrow to find out what powers the new cadets could enhance Voltron with. After about an hour Pidge spoke up.

"I've got something here!" He said pulling up a separate holo-screen with an Earth-like planet on it except for the sky and clouds. "It was in the Baltan database under 'no longer inhabited'. But from pictures of a probe it doesn't look like it was always like that." On the screen were pictures of small villages that had crumbled from time. On one picture in showed a village with a small fountain.

"Go back to that one Pidge." Allura said as Pidge enlarged the image, showing the fountain and what was around it. The village around the fountain was just like the others, destroyed by time. Except there was something different about it. "Zoom in right there Pidge." Allura pointed at a certain building and Pidge did so. On the building, one could see scorch marks that had almost faded.

"That's the village that Claire described from her dream. The one that was destroyed by fire and where she said she saw some man take an infant from a woman he had killed." Allura said with a grim expression.

"If the database is correct, the planet is named Helilion. There are large cave systems underneath the planet that all connect. The probe didn't explore the cave systems, so if the planet is inhabited, they are mostly likely there afraid to reveal themselves." Pidge said.

"Just like how the Arusian's were when we first got here." Keith said with a solemn expression.

"Then after tomorrows simulation training we will take a trip to the planet and see if Claire can remember anything else about the planet." Allura said and the others nodded in agreement. "Now, I think we should all turn in for the night, it's going to be a long day tomorrow." The three went to their rooms and the castle was silent and everyone asleep, except for Claire who had finished exploring what she wanted to of the castle and laid in her bed, trying to sleep but afraid of more nightmares, until she finally drifted off to sleep.

In the morning after everyone ate breakfast the team went to the Voltron simulator while Pidge and Allura stayed in the control room. Daniel plugged in his Voltcom and Voltron activated its Flash Form.

"Alright newbie's let's see what you can do." Lance said sitting in the backseat of Red while Claire was piloting since his arm still wasn't healed all the way.

Pidge then programmed a small robeast to appear in the simulator that would attack Voltron with a heavy hitting ranged laser.

"Okay Mark, you're up first." Keith said as mark plugged in. "Defense Boost!" With that, Voltron's shields were supercharged and the attacks from the robeast barely hurt it.

"Alright, now let's fight laser with laser. Form Red Center!" Keith said as the Red Lion formed the head of Voltron. Claire then looked at Lance who smiled at her and nodded.

"Draw Magma Pistols!" She said as the guns formed in the Green and Black Lion's mouths. "Vince, plug in." Keith said and Vince did so, giving them a power boost. Voltron then began a firefight with the virtual robeast but their shots weren't seeming to phase it.

"Uh Pidge, did you program this thing to not be affected by laser blasts?" Claire asked as she maneuvered Voltron behind some cover.

"I programmed it to not be affected by heat based weaponry." Pidge said with a slight smirk and Claire sighed. "Try using your Voltcom and see what happens." He said before closing the voice channel.

Claire then looked at her Voltcom and decided she might as well give it a try. She plugged in and saw something begin to change in the Magma Pistols.

"Elemental Swap!" She said and the Magma Pistols turned into an electric blue. She then moved Voltron out of cover and shot at the robeast, when the shot connected instead of the usually firey explosion, there was a burst of electricity and she grinned and kept firing at the robeast till it went down and the simulation ended. Afterwards everyone was smiling and they all went to the control room where Pidge and Allura stood.

"Congratulations cadets." Pidge said and Allura smiled at seeing how Claire was no longer wearing her beanie, showing her ears to everyone. Then, once everyone was in the room Keith stood beside Allura and Pidge and a holo-screen popped up.

"Now that the simulations over with, time to talk about the first mission we will be going on with our new cadets. But, before that, Pidge has an announcement to make." Pidge then motioned for everyone's attention to be focused on the holo-screen.

"As we did before with the lions, implementing our Voltcom's power into them, I've made some upgrades to our Voltcom's themselves to provide more versatility for the team." On the screen appeared holographic images of each one of the active Voltron Force members. "Starting with Keith, for those close-quarter combats you like to get into, I've upgraded your Voltcom to give an electricity like current flowing on your suit. It'll deliver enough voltage to anyone who lands a hit on you to stun them briefly." Keith smiled. "Next, Lance. I've given your guns more firepower as well increased their range." Lance nodded. "Hunk, you've got more brute power added to your hammer, along with it being able to separate to give you some more range like your Wrecking Maces." Hunk laughed.

Pidge then looked at Vince and Larmina, "Sadly, I'm still working the kinks out of your upgrades, but don't worry they should be ready by the time you get back." He then looked to the cadets.

"And don't worry, I didn't leave you cadets out this time. Daniel, your claw-shot can now be used as a kind of grappling hook. Mark, you can now put up a defensive holo-barrier that can take quite a few hits. Claire, camo-suit. It'll allow you to blend in with your surrounds and make you almost invisible. There'll be a slight shimmer where you are because of the experimental tech I had to work with." The cadets all smiled at each other and high-fived.

"Now that that's finished, how about we get on with our mission?" Keith said and everyone calmed down. "Good, now we will be going to a supposedly uninhabited planet to inspect it to see if the population has gone underground, or has just left the planet. Everyone understand?" The team nodded. "Good, now get to the lions" he said and everyone went to their ziplines and went to the lions. Soon enough they were on their way to planet Helilion. Flying at the lion's top speed, it would take about an hour so they put their lions on auto-pilot and decided to pass the time with mindless chatter.

They talked about Earth and how the Galaxy Alliance and the Garrison was doing under the new Sky Marshal. It was a pretty brief discussion about that because there wasn't much to talk about. Soon they began talking about the new Voltcom powers that the new cadets brought to the field.

"That defense boost is so going to come in handy." Vince said and Mark smiled. "And Claire, switching the elemental powers of the lions, I didn't think it was possible." Claire slightly blushed, "Thanks, Vince."

They eventually got to planet Helilion and Claire gasped slightly, it was the planet from her dreams. As they brought the lion's in for a landing near a village with a mountain close by, they all noticed something, there may not be any inhabitants on the surface, but there were plenty of strange looking animals scattering away from where they were landing. Once landed, they kept their Voltcom suits on as Vince tested the oxygen to make sure it would be compatible with their systems. Somehow, Claire knew they wouldn't have any difficulty with the oxygen. As Vince gave them the go ahead they deactivated their Voltcom suits and stepped out of the lions and began to explore the nearby village, seeing if anyone had scavenged it for materials or if it looked like someone had been there recently.

"Nothing over here." Claire said into her Voltcom. Her and Lance had been searching the southern part of the village while the others had been sent to different parts of it.

"The only thing I'm finding is animal prints." Hunk said as him and Mark checked the North-East end of the village.

"Okay, lets meet back up in the middle and then make our way to the mountain to see if we can find a cave system that might lead to some inhabitants." Keith said and everyone agreed.

As Claire and Lance began making their way back to the center of the village they heard the sound of stone crumbling and they instinctively activated their weapons and Voltcom armor. And looked around carefully, as they slowly started backing towards each other as more movement was heard.

"Guys, we got movement down here, don't know if it's hostile or not. But it definitely sounds like animals." Lance said as he and Claire now stood back to back.

"Set you weapons to stun, we don't want to hurt these creatures. We're on our way." Keith said as they finally got a view of one of the possible creatures stalking them. It was a large, panther like creature with fur as black as the night and eyes blue like ice. _'Wait.'_ Claire thought to herself, _'don't panthers have yellow eyes?'_ She didn't have to think anything else as the creature can rushing at them, snarling. They both shot at the creature, but it was just too fast for them. Lance then switched from his gun to his fist as Claire kept shooting, deciding that if it got close enough, he'd punch it.

While they were focused on the panther in front of them, they failed to notice a second one sneaking in from the side, targeting Lance since he seemed like the bigger threat. Then, just as the beast was about to attack, Claire's ears picked up its movements as it rushed at them. She then had a flashback to her dream and looked at Lance. The first panther was only a few feet from them when it jumped at Lance, who then punched it, sending it flying down the street. Seeing its comrade get hit, the second panther made its move and jumped at Lance before he could react after punching the first one. Claire jumped at the panther and the tow of them hit the ground, tumbling. As the beast tried to bite her face off she noticed something, this panther had purple eyes. She then focused back onto the task of trying not to get mauled to death by an alien panther. She then put her hands against the beast's throat trying to hold its jaw away from her own throat. During the struggle, her Voltcom suit had been deactivated and her ears popped back into their normal position and the beast stopped attacking her and they locked eyes for a moment. She thought she saw something in the beast's eyes, but she quickly shook that idea out of her head and used this moment of pause from the beast trying to kill her and look to Lance who then punched the beast off of her, one of its claws scratching her arm slightly as Lance punched it.

"You okay cadet?" Lance asked and she nodded, he offered a hand to help her up and she took it. Both of the alien panthers looked at each other and snarled at Lance. It was at this time that the rest of the Voltron Force got there. The panthers, realizing they were then outnumbered fled. Keith then walked over to Claire and noticed the scratch on her arm.

"You good?" He asked and Claire nodded.

"Just a scratch." She said and Keith nodded.

"Okay, let's go check that cave. Weapons at the ready and on stun." Everyone nodded and they walked as a group to the mountain and the cave that lay inside it.

Keith instructed Claire, Mark, and Daniel to stand guard to make none of those alien panthers get the jump on them inside the cave. As the rest of the force went inside the three cadets sat down, Mark using the Voltcom's binocular feature to see if anything was trying to sneak up on them. Claire then grunted and put a hand on the scratch the panther gave her, it was only a small scratch yet it had started to burn like fire.

"You okay Claire?" Daniel asked as mark kept watch. She nodded and explained that it just burned a bit.  
Mark then spoke up.

"We got movement down below, looks like two of those alien panthers that attacked you and Lance." They all activated their Voltcom suits and looked at each other.

"Let's test out those new Voltcom abilities Pidge gave us." Daniel said, activating his weapons, Claire and Mark nodded. Claire then went somewhat invisible and Mark put up his barrier to their side to make sure they wouldn't get flanked by another panther that may be coming that he didn't see.

Being invisible was pretty cool Claire had to admit, she then went above where the mouth of the cave was and used the binocular function on her Voltcom. She saw the two panthers that Mark had seen, but she also saw something else. It was smaller than the panthers were and instead of coming after them, it just sat there looking at them with blue eyes. The closer she looked at it, the more it looked like it was staring at just her. She then turned the binocular function off and went back down to the others and turned off her invisibility, slightly spooking Daniel.

"There's a third animal thing staring at us from across the meadow, and the two panthers are coming right for us. Should be here in about a minute." Claire stated. Mark and Daniel nodded preparing themselves for a fight.

Down in the cave the rest of the Force was discovering something very strange. They came across a large cavern inside the cave that had cave painting, they were using the flashlights on their Voltcom's to look at the paintings on the cave walls. They depicted a large battle between an outside force and the death of one of the five chieftains and her tribe of the planet.

"Guys, check this out." Larmina was looking at a painting that depicted something that looked like a human like being changing into a large cat-like creature. Everyone stared in disbelief at what the human-like creature, as it had a type of animal ears on top of its head. "Doesn't this look like someone we know?" She said. Everyone's thoughts immediately went to Claire.

"She's one of them?" Hunk asked uncertainly. Everyone just shrugged for they did not have the answer.

"If she is, then she would be able to do this shapeshifting thing" Vince said, looking at some of the other paintings. He saw what looked to be four amulets and a fifth one off in the distance. He looked at the fifth amulet and upon closer inspection, he saw that it was inscribed with something. He took a picture with his Voltcom of it. He then reached out to Daniel via their mind connection. _"How's everything going out there Daniel?"_ Daniel only replied with, _"We get two panthers incoming, and something watching us from the distance. Better hurry it up."_

As the Force kept investigating the cavern and taking pictures for Pidge and Vince to analyze when they got back to the castle. Back at the mouth of the cave, something was obviously wrong with Claire. The closer the panthers got to them, the more the scratch on her arm seemed to burn and her insides felt as though they were being twisted. She had taken to getting behind Mark and Daniel, they were focused on keeping the cave, and her, defended. As she heard the roar from one of the panthers, her body convulsed and she fell to her knees. Everything was spinning and her vision was getting blurry, she tried to shake herself out of it but it wasn't working. Her ears flattened against her head and she grabbed at the ground, clawing at it. She attempted to look at Mark and Daniel, but with her blurry vision, she could barely make them out. She opened her mouth as all of her sensations overloaded and her vision went black.

The two boys in front of her didn't even notice what was happening, they were to focused on the two panthers prowling towards them. They were going to hold their ground and protect the rest of the team. Daniel mentally told Vince to hurry up. The two boys got ready to fight as the panthers suddenly bolted at them. As they got ready to fight they heard something behind them.

Claire opened her eyes and felt a strange sensation. She looked around and her eyes went wide, why couldn't she talk. She looked down and she knew she had to be dreaming. Since when did she have cat paws. She shook her head and then her ears perked up, she heard the panthers take off running. And they were heading for Mark and Daniel. She tried to call out but nothing came out. She then thought to herself _'Screw it'_. She let out a growl as soon as she saw the panthers and then took off, faster than she thought she was. She then leapt up and tackled one of the panthers away as Daniel and Mark fought off the other panther. As Claire scrambled to her feet, well, paws now, her and the panther locked eyes. It was the same one from the village that had attacked her and Lance at first. Its blue eyes staring right into her bright red eyes. The panther then growled at her and she growled back, the panther may be bigger than her, but she knew that if she could stall it long enough, the others might come to help. So the two of them began circling each other.

The rest of the Force got to the mouth of the cave as soon as Vince said he had received a mental message from Daniel saying that they'd better hurry. When they got there, they found Mark and Daniel having one of the panthers cornered against Mark's barrier. Lance then looked around, and noticed someone was missing.

"Where's Claire?" he said with a bit of worry. The cadet had already gotten hurt once on his watch. The other two cadets looked at each other and then Daniel motioned with his head towards the meadow beneath the cave.

"She's down there. At least, I think that's her." He said. Lance, confused went past the cadets to see the second panther circling with what looked to be a dark red colored lynx like creature.

"That's Claire?" he asked the boys and they shrugged saying that they think it is. Lance then noticed a larger panther moving towards where the second panther and what could have been Claire. Its blue eyes piercing the tall meadow grass. The larger panther then sat down, and raised its head above the meadow grass and roared. The other two panthers immediately ran to its side. The three panthers began walking towards the Voltron Force, who by now had drawn their weapons. Cat Claire then ran and stood in front of the Force and growled at the approaching panthers. The largest panther walked in front of the other two as the got to the edge of the meadow and stood in front of Cat Claire and the Force. Then as if it was never there, the panther shifted into a large man wearing animal skin and holding a spear. The man then stood as the panthers behind him did the same and shifted into a more human appearance. All of them had panther like ears on the tops of their heads. What really surprised the Force was when the larger man spoke to them.

"So, these are the visitors I was told about by my sons. Not as intimidating as I thought you'd be." The man had a low and rumbling voice that sounded as if it was much older than what the man appeared to be.

"So, what brings you strangers to a land that has not been visited in some time. Or are you just here to disgrace our sacred burial grounds with your filth." The man's voice was getting louder and her look a step forward which caused Cat Claire to snap at him. Startled, the man then looked down and his eyes went wide and he bent down slightly to look at her.

"Hmmm… The first shift is always rough, especially for one of your birth." The man held out a hand and Claire growled at him, the rest of the Force getting their weapons ready.

"No need to fear, I am simply trying to help." The man said and Claire believed his words and the man pressed his hand on her head and dull blue and red light started shining. The light enveloped both the man and Claire, and after it was gone Claire was there with one knee on the ground and the man's hand slowing removing itself from her head shaking. The man and Claire locked eyes and he smiled a bit.

"I thought you'd all been killed when 'HE' attacked." The man said with a bit more of a happy tone and Claire just looked at him confused, she was having a bit of trouble getting her voice back after turning into a cat creature somehow. The man then cleared his throat and the both stood up and held out a hand.

"Allow me to apologize for everything. I am Zorcan, one of the five chieftains that lead this planet. I believe we started off on the uh… wrong foot." Keith than stepped forward and grabbed the man's hand and shook it.

"I'm Commander Keith, leader of the Voltron Force. And if you wouldn't mind explaining what just happened, I'm sure we could get a better understanding of things." Keith said and Zorcan nodded and then sighed.

"It is a long story Commander Keith, but I will do my best to explain it to you. You see, chieftains, such as myself, are all descended from the royal bloodline., but we got rid of the monarchy long ago and went to the tribal system. But we always considered those whose hair was the same as our life blood, to be direct descendants of the royal line, so we still treat them as such. And when they become chieftain they would be the head of any debate between the tribes. And as I'm sure you have seen the cave paintings, there was a huge battle here, many lives were lost. The turning point in the battle was the loss of one of the other chieftains and her entire people, or so we thought." The man looked at Claire, who just pointed at herself questioningly and he nodded. "You see, our people have the distinct ability to shapeshift into a certain cat-like creature based on our tribe. The tribe that your 'cub' belongs to was the one that was destroyed by 'HIM'. We were winning the battle in the beginning and the chieftain was with child. The battle lasted no less than a year, and the chieftain had given birth to a little girl. Now, you may think that what has that to do with her." He motioned towards Claire. "Well, every chieftain family has two distinct traits, one being the ears, and two is that the hair color is always the same through the generations." Everyone looked at Claire and she held up her hands defensively, still not quite able to talk. "I believe you know I am saying the truth little one, for you have dreamed of it before. And something was drawing you here wasn't it." Zorcan asked and Claire nodded slightly. "That's because you were being drawn here by the amulet of your tribe." The man then opened his staff and inside were two amulets, one blue and the red. He then took the red amulet and held it out to Claire and she hesitantly grabbed it. The amulet then glowed with a red light and floated slightly. "That, is also another way to tell." Zorcan said with a slight bow and the two men behind him knelt down to their knees. "Welcome back Your Majesty, Queen of Helilion."

Before Claire could even get a word out she collapsed from exhaustion. _'Man, who would've thought that turning into a cat creature and back to a human would take so much energy'_ She thought to herself as she fell, only to be caught by Mark. After that, she blacked out once more.


End file.
